Ian Stewart is injured. It's not his wrist this time, but he'll be out a few weeks. Luis Valbuena has already made the team. Josh Vitters is also out an other 2-3 weeks, but I thought this was interesting. The Cubs do face some decisions regarding Stewart. His $2 million contract is non-guaranteed, which is not unusual for an arbitration-level …
2013 PECOTA Projections
The 2013 PECOTA projections are out and I thought I'd post some of the Cubs below. Since you have to be a subscriber in order to download the spreadsheet, I'm only going to include PA and wOBA, which I calculated using the basic formula. For pitchers I'll only show IP and FIP (I calculated this too). 2013 PECOTA Projections for …
Fangraphs Top 15 Cubs Prospects
It's that time of the year, so Fangraphs released their version of the top Cubs prospects list right behind Baseball Prospectus' list from a few days ago. In case you are wondering, I'm sure OV will have our own top Cubs prospects list just as soon as the search teams find DJ and we can chain him back up to …
The Children Are Our Future – Minor League Update Sponsored by TGI Friday’s
AZL Cubs Shawon Dunston, Jr.'s minor league career has not gotten off to a fast start. He was 0-4 last night. After spending 71 plate appearances at Boise he was demoted to the AZL Cubs where he's been an improved hitter, but nothing that gets you excited. On the season he's hit .228/.291/.347. Albert Almora was 1-4 with a double …
Obstructed View’s Top 20 Cubs Prospects
1. Brett Jackson OF AAA The Math — The 23 year old, 2009 1st round pick has a slash line .261/.339/.494. Astronomical strikeout rate (33.8%), but he still has a 114 wRC+. The Good — Despite the K's Jackson has still been a productive player. He gets a ton of XHB's with his speed and has plenty of pop from CF. …
The Children Are The Future-Cubs Minor League Update Sponsored by Acapulco Taco Pie
Iowa Another day another Anthony Rizzo HR. He decided to pair his 13th shot of the year with a triple and kept his average at .359. Brett Jackson on the other hand is really scuffling right now as he slipped down to .226 after another 0-4 day. Randy Wells got shelled and has a 7 + ERA right now. He is …
The Children Are The Future- Cubs Minor League Update Sponsored by Big Red Chewing Gum & Pubic Wigs
Iowa It was a pitching duel in Des Moines yesterday as Brett Jackson scored the only run of the game on a balk. Casey Coleman was the pitcher for Iowa working 7 IP and only giving up 2 hits. He struck out 9 batters and has a respectable ERA of 3.48. Scott Maine finished the game with two scoreless innings …
Daily Facepalm 3.16.12 – Too Much Chalk Edition
Was there a Cubs game yesterday? I was so in shock at Wisconsin's ability to score more than 60 points that I failed to pay attention to yesterday's games. It looks like it was probably a good thing. In the Dbacks game, Ryan Dempster gave up eight hits and a walk in three and 2/3 innings, but shocklingly only three …
Daily Facepalm 3.13.12
Practice game wrapup The Cubs knocked the eminently hittable Bronson Arroyo around in the first inning, capped off by an approximately 900 ft Alfonso Soriano HR (HR distance estimated by the sound it made coming off the bat and Len's reaction). Paul Maholm performed about as expected in his Cubs debut, giving up a homer to Reds outfielder Todd Frazier …
A comparison of two prospects
I’m going to compare two Cubs prospects who I’ll refer to as X and Z until the end. X turns 22 in March while Z turned 22 at the end of August. Both players just finished their age 21 season, but Z is older by several months. X played a majority of his age 21 season in AA while Z …